What is VPN?

What is a VPN? This is a question that I had myself not too long ago. When you connect to the internet, your online activities get routed through your Internet Service Provider (ISP). The ISPs are usually legally bound to monitor and keep logs of the internet traffic that passes through their networks. This means that your every online activity gets recorded somewhere and can be handed over to the government in case the need arises. So even though you may think that your online activities are completely secure and you are completely anonymous on the internet; this is not usually the case.

Likewise when you use set up a Wi-Fi network at your house or use public Wi-Fi networks available at malls, cafes, restaurants, airports and libraries; your private data can be accessed by snoopers or hackers. That’s because a typical Wi-Fi network is not secure enough to protect your private details and it can easily be cracked by tech savvy people. Needless to say, this can lead to loss or theft of your personal details such as banking account numbers, passwords, social security number, social networking and email accounts etc. If you are serious about your privacy and security on the internet then you must use a secure solution such as a virtual private network (VPN) to safeguard your personal details.

What is a VPN?

A VPN is a private network of computers that provides privacy and security over public networks like internet. While VPNs have been used in corporate environments for years, these days they are getting increasingly popular among security aware internet users. Apart from protecting your privacy and anonymity on the internet, a VPN also allows you to bypass Government, ISP and organization based restrictions as well as watch location based content that is not available in your country. A VPN is a much better online privacy solution than a web proxy since it secures every application that uses the internet unlike proxies which just secure web browsing sessions.

How do VPNs Work?

A VPN creates a secure tunnel around your online sessions that cannot be breached even by your ISP or sophisticated hackers. To achieve this, VPN providers use latest security and encryption protocols that provide online security for laptops, iPads, iPhones, Android smartphones and other devices used to access the internet. When you are connected to a VPN, your ISP can just see that you are connected to the VPN server but cannot decipher the data packets passing through the network. Also most VPN provides do not keep a record of your online sessions, so your online activities are completely private and secure.

When you connect to a VPN, you also get a new IP address from the country of your choice. This allows you to bypass government and ISP firewalls and access location restricted content such as live events, TV shows, movies etc. from any corner of the world. Most VPN providers offer extremely fast speeds with unlimited bandwidth which makes them a good solution for watching streaming content, torrenting, VOIP activities, online gaming as well as downloading huge files. There are several excellent VPN providers like HideMyAss, ExpressVPN, IPVanish, PureVPN, StrongVPN etc. that allow you to experience true online freedom without compromising on speed or bandwidth.

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